He held up some fingers and asked you, “How many fingers do you see?”
If he holds up four fingers and you see four of them, then he says you are OK. But if he holds up two and you see four of them, you have a problem.
In Mark 8, this is similar to what happened. Look at verses 22-25, we read, “And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.”
When the Lord placed His hands on the blind man’s eyes, He asked him what he saw, and he said, “…I see men as trees, walking…” The Lord knew this was not right, so He put his hands on his eyes again, and this time the Bible says he, “…saw every man clearly.”
Today the church needs the Lord to put His hands on our eyes spiritually so that we can see men clearly.
What do you see when you look at people that surround you each day? Do you see them as:
• Rich people
• Poor people
• Sons
• Daughters
• Parents
• Sports fans
• Employees
• Employers
• Class mates
• Insurance men
• Waitresses
• Bank Tellers
• Truck Drivers
• Teachers
• Garbage men
• Mail men
God want us to see them for what they are…LOST SOULS THAT NEED TO BE SAVED!
The Lord says, in Matt. 28:19-20, “Go ye therefore, and TEACH ALL NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: TEACHING THEM to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
The world is filled with lost souls.
Illus: In the mountains of North Carolina, some men took a fellow named Clarence, who was not the smartest man who ever lived, into the woods to go bear hunting. They took him to a cabin in the woods and told him to go out in the woods and find a bear and when he did, run back toward the cabin. Once he got to the door, they would open the door and let him in.
Clarence was gone for a long time, and the men in the cabin were laughing about Clarence out in the woods trying to find a bear. Then they heard the voice of Clarence coming over the hill screaming, “Open the door!”
They looked and Clarence was coming over the hill at top speed with a bear steadily gaining on him. When he got right to the door, they opened the door to let Clarence in, but he stepped aside, and the bear went flying into the cabin. Clarence pulled the door closed behind the bear.
As Clarence left, he was heard saying, “I am going to get another one, the woods are full of them!”
The world is full of sinners. We might see them as bank tellers, waitresses, or mechanics, but the fact is, they are SINNERS THAT NEED THE LORD. They are EVERYWHERE! Some folks can’t recognize that.
Illus: A shoe salesman went to Africa to sell some shoes.
• When he got there, he wrote back, “I am wasting my time, these people do not wear shoes!’
• They sent another salesman. He wrote back, “Send shoes, none of these people have any!”
The world is truly full of lost souls. When you look at all these people, WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Illus: Have you ever sat in a football stadium and looked at the thousands of people and wondered if the rapture of the church was to take place, how many would be taken and how many would be left behind? I am sure that it would be devastating to see the number that would be left behind.
That is why Jesus said, “The harvest truly is plenteous.” The world is full of sinners!
We can learn a very valuable lesson from the Lord on soul winning:
• He was concerned about the physically sick
• He was concerned about the poor and the hungry
He never took his eyes off reaching the lost.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was moved with compassion for them. These words literally mean, “to be moved in the heart.”
He wants us to be moved in the heart just as He was. We see -
I. HE SAW THE PITY OF THE HARVEST
Look at verse 36, we read, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”
Have you ever seen anyone that seemed to have the ability to look at someone’s face, but yet see deep into the heart as well? The Lord could do this. He could look beyond the smile of a lost man’s face and see in his heart how utterly hopeless he was. He saw the pain, the loneliness and the misery they felt in their hearts!
Many Christians can’t see what the Lord saw when he looked at lost mankind. The Lord saw them and His heart was moved with compassion. Oh, how we need to see the multitudes as Jesus saw them!
Illus: Have you ever driven through a neighborhood and passed by hundreds of homes? WHAT DID YOU SEE? If you are like most folks, you saw:
• Houses
• Cars
• Boats
• Campers
• Trees
• Bicycles or tricycles
• Shrubbery
But if that is all you saw, you did not see the most important thing that the Lord wants you to see. You missed the people!
• Over here is a family. They seem happy. They have good jobs, plenty of money, a nice house and all the things this world can offer them. But, if you could look into the hearts of these families, you would see turmoil, fear, loneliness and desperation.
• Over here is another family. They don’t have as much as this other family. Yet, they are still people without hope and they need someone to see them as they really are!
The Lord saw these people that surrounded Him and He was moved with PITY FOR THEM!
A church will never be a soul winning church until God opens their spiritual eyes so they can see lost man in his sinful condition.
HE SAW THE PITY OF THE HARVEST, but notice something else in this passage of scripture-
II. HE SAW THE POTENTIAL OF THE HARVEST
Look at verse 37, we read, “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;”
When Jesus saw the multitudes, he saw what we see when we see a multitude.
• He saw people pushing and shoving
• He saw people trying to protect themselves from others
• He saw people following the crowd
• He saw people that were confused
• He saw people that have been marred by sin
But he also saw men that could be delivered, changed and saved! He did not just see the problems, He saw the potential!
Illus: Have you ever watched the television program called, “Extreme Makeover”? They find someone that the world considers plain or drab looking. Then they take them out to Hollywood, and when they get through with that person, they do not look like the same person.
Humor: Now I heard that Bro. ___ sent a picture of his wife to them. But it saddened his heart when he got a letter from them telling him he sent it to the wrong program, and that they were forwarding his mail to the television program called, “Mission Impossible!”
When the Lord saw sinners, HE SAW THEM NOT AS THEY WERE, BUT HE SAW WHAT THEY COULD BECOME!
HOW DO WE SEE THE LOST? Do we see sinners lost in their filthiness and wickedness? Do we see people as they are, or do we see them as the Lord could make them if they came to Him?
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells of a man that lives in the mountains in North Carolina. He is a nuisance to his community. He is a drunk, and often fights and stays in trouble with the law. Often the people in the community talk about how mean and evil this man has become. But Dr. Belger told his wife one day, “We need to pray for that man to get saved, because once he comes to know the Lord by the grace of God, and his life is miraculous changed, his testimony can do more good in this community than 10 preachers.
Listen, when God saves a sinner, you never know how God might use that sinner for His glory!
Illus: One day, they brought a woman and threw her at the feet of Jesus like she was a piece of garbage. And they told the Lord they caught her in the very act of adultery. They said, “Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?”
The Lord told those religious snobs that whoever was without sin should cast the first stone, and they all walked away.
Listen, the Lord saved her and told her to go and sin no more. God is still using that adulterous woman as we talk about her tonight.
Illus: Remember the demon possessed man that the Lord encountered in the book of Mark? He was a wild man that he lived among the dead. The Lord saved him, and the whole town came out to see what the Lord had done for this man.
What I am trying to get us to understand is this truth: There are people all around us who need Jesus! The harvest truly is plentiful. Many are ripe for the picking, we merely need to see it and do something about it!
Once they come to know the Lord:
• Some will be the future preachers and missionaries the Lord will use
• Some will be the choir members God will use to sing His praises
• Some will be the Sunday school teachers that God will use
• Some will be the future soul winners who will reach the lost for Christ
Illus: In America today, we are having a shortage of men. Through abortion, mothers have killed their babies and now they have messed up God’s chain of balance.
These children that have been aborted could have been the future:
• Ministers and missionaries
• Sunday School teachers
• Doctors and Lawyers
• Athletes
• Politicians
But that will never happen now because mothers saw fit to take life into their own hands and not recognize the potential of that life.
The church has aborted God’s plan of reaching the lost, and now there are many who will never be saved. When the Lord saw the multitudes, He saw the POTENTIAL OF THE HARVEST.
But also-
III. HE SAW THE PROBLEM OF THE HARVEST
Look at verse 37 again, we read, “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;”
As Jesus looked at the multitudes, He recognized a problem: there were few laborers working in the Father’s field!
That problem still exists today. There are very few who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the work.
In Matthew 4:18-22 the Lord called his disciples to be fishers of men. One of the reasons He used this illustration is that any fishermen knows that to catch fish, you have to go where the fish are living. They do not come to us, we have to go to them.
Illus: Those of you who farm, know that the harvest doesn’t just gather itself. You’ve got to get out there, get down where it is and do the dirty work of harvesting it.
• Wouldn’t it be nice if the green beans picked themselves and piled themselves on your porch?
• What if the okra, the squash and the corn plucked themselves and came to where you were?
Well, it doesn’t work like that! To harvest your garden, you have to go to where the harvest is.
The same is true in bringing men to Jesus. We can sit in the church, but we won’t see a harvest until we go were the lost men are living.
IV. HE SAW THE POWER OF THE HARVEST
Look at verse 38, we read, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
The first thing the Lord told the disciples to do was, PRAY!
Notice that Jesus told them to pray that the Lord of the harvest (God) would send forth laborers into the harvest. If we pray, He will send forth the laborers. Of course, they might just be us!
HOW DO YOU SEE PEOPLE? If you will start to pray for them, you will no longer see them as mechanics, bank tellers, gas station attendants, and cashiers, you will see them as precious souls that the Lord came to die for and wants to save.
This evening, why don’t you ask the Lord to touch your eyes so that you can see CLEARLY?
Conclusion:
We see that -
I. HE SAW THE PITY OF THE HARVEST
II. HE SAW THE POTENTIAL OF THE HARVEST
III. HE SAW THE PROBLEM OF THE HARVEST
IV. HE SAW THE POWER OF THE HARVEST
